Swan Lake
by The Deceiving Maiden
Summary: Ten years ago, Prince Kano Shuuya fell in love with Princess Kido Tsubomi, but sadly she vanished and thought to have been attacked by a 'black serpent with bright yellow eyes' and died in a fire. Now older and ready to fight, Kano was going to find Kido, set her free from her curse along with her friends. But would she let him save her? Swan Lake AU.


**Deceiver: FF YOU'RE FINALLY FIXED. Okay, finally KanoKido Christmas Gift for my friend. She wanted a Swan Lake AU. Granted, I wrote out the draft of the plot and it's floating in the KanoKido tag somewhere, but here's the real thing and will be a slow update. AKA when I get the other fanfics finished.**

**Enjoy! :D**

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**Prologue**

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"Your Highness? Your Highness! Where are you? Come out this instant! Please!"

As if he was going to do that. Hidden behind the bushes and telling his nervous friend to keep quiet, the young prince pulled away a tile against the huge garden wall, which revealed a small hole for them to through. Giving off a sneaky grin, the boy quickly crawled through it, ushering his friend to follow. He was hesitant at first, but followed anyway.

"Oh…I don't like this…" the boy said nervously once they made it through and quickly ran into the woods. His small, clammy hands clutching the hilt of his shinai tightly; worried that something might jump out any moment.

"Don't worry, Kousuke! There's nothing to fear!"

"If Her Majesty knew you ran off again, she'll get mad, Your Highness!"

"And I said it's fine. And stop calling me that! It's Shuuya!"

Seto didn't like it, but made no comment. They had known each other since they were toddlers and everyone in the palace knew about how they were stuck together like honey paste to two pieces of crackers. He was not supposed to be his friends though; he was supposed to be the young prince's bodyguard.

"You…Shuuya," he ignored the prince's snicker, "where are we going anyway?"

There was that glint in those bright yellow eyes again, which was a telling sign of it being something that was not good. Lately, Kano had been sneaking out of the palace more often. Seto didn't understand what was so good out here. Danger lurked at every corner in the outside world, with so many people with evil intention to hurt the young prince. The small guard was short and lanky compared to the prince, and he was nowhere skilled with his shinai yet.

Looking around, Kano stopped to observe his surroundings. "Today she's…over there!" he quickly dashed off into another direction. Seto yelped and ran after him, trying to not trip over the wild grass and twigs lying about. When he called out to him, he was immediately silenced and stopped by his friend.

"Stay here," Kano said quietly before he began to creep up towards a big tree. Seto wanted to protest, but he knew better. Slowly and stealthily like a cat, Kano went around the tree, looking behind it before he broke out into a bright smile.

"I found you!" he shouted once he recognized the green, shoulder length haired girl crying behind the tree. She looked up at him, startled with her grey eyes wide open with tears. Staring at him, she sniffled, trying to wipe away traces of her crying before looking back up at him, a slightly puzzled look on her face.

"How come you can always find me?"

"I heard you," he answered simply. It might sound weird to others, but these words had always worked like magic. The girl smiled slightly, getting up and patting the dirt off her violet kimono. Grinning still, Kano quickly turned back to a very confused looking Seto and urged him to join them. The girl was confused at first, until she saw the new company and hid behind the blond prince in a hurry.

"Who is he?" she asked, a bit frightened.

"This is my friend, Seto Kousuke. Kousuke, this is my friend, Tsubomi."

Both of the stared at each other, not sure what to do. Seto bowed down a bit while gripping his shinai in his clammy hands. "Seto Kousuke. I'm His Highness's personal guard."

"And friend!" Kano added quickly. The girl stared at Seto a bit longer, before bowing herself.

"I'm Kido Tsubomi…Shuuya's friend," she greeted politely. Shuuya smiled at her and took her hand in his.

"So, what do you want to play today, Tsubomi?" he asked.

Kido gave it a thought, frowning as she tried to think up of a game. "Umm…I want to play Darumasan ga Koronda*."

The young prince nodded happily. "Okay! I'll be it, okay?"

"Okay!" Kido smiled and quickly ran to the tree that seemed like a good starting point. Seto stared after her for a moment, until Kano urged him to hurry along before he finally went to join her.

"Ready?" Kano called out to them before turning towards the tree and covering his eyes. He heard them shout 'Taking the first step!' and the game began. "Darumasan," he began and he heard them walking towards him, "ga Koronda!" he quickly snapped his head towards them, trying to not laugh at how serious they looked on their frozen position. Turning back, he said 'Darumasan ga Koronda!' again. When he turned back, he saw Tsubomi was trying to balance on one leg, but fell in a mere second.

"Ah, Tsubomi!" Kano ran up to her, hoping she wouldn't cry. The girl stared up at him, a bit embarrassed when he sat next to her.

"I fell…" she said. Kano nodded and took her hand.

"It's ok. But since you moved, you have to stand next to me." The girl nodded and followed Kano back to the tree. They held hands, the blond boy holding her tightly before shouting at his other friend, "Good luck, Kousuke!"

"Y-Yes, Your Highness!" the boy stuttered nervously, hoping to not fail. The game resumed again, with Seto trying to not get caught by Kano. After a few more steps, Seto freed Kido.

"You're free! Run!" They both ran away from Kano, who was now yelling and giving chase. They didn't listen and kept running of course. The children laughed, chasing each other around once there was a new it. And then along the way, it became a game of tags.

"Tag! You're it, Your Highness!" Seto ran away from a shocked Kano, a bit proud of himself to be able to catch up to his friend. Kido was hiding behind a tree, giggling until she was spotted. She squealed and turned to run, but her feet caught on an exposed tree root and tripped.

"Ow!"

"Tsubomi!" the boys ran up to the fallen girl. She didn't answer them; instead she stared out in front of her, her eyes slowly getting watery before she started to cry. Sitting down, Kano quickly got her up next to him, patting her hair to calm her down. "Shh…it's ok. Where does it hurt?"

"M-My knee…" she sobbed, staring at the scrape on her knee. Kano quickly placed his hand above it, giving it a slight tickle. Kido squeaked slightly, staring at Kano quietly before he suddenly said, "Pain, pain, go away!" he lifted his hands into the air and turned back to Kido with a bright smile. "There. Does it hurt anymore, Tsubomi?"

There was a slight sniffle, but she shook her head. "No…"

Seto sat next to them and offered his own smile. "Why don't we take a break?"

"Gee, Kousuke, I thought you were worried about my mum an hour ago?"

"W-Well…We can't just leave Kido-san like this!"

Kano gave a mocking pout but just sat back anyway. Kido stared at him silently, her bottom lips pouted out and her eyes bright. Seto watched them, before he asked, "So, how did you meet His Highness, Kido-san?"

Kido turned to him, a bit surprised and stammered shyly, "I…Umm…you see…"

"I met Tsubomi when she was crying here," Kano jumped in instantly. The small girl glanced at him, then down at her feet to let him finish it. "For some reason her family likes dumping her in the woods and they ordered her to stay here until they're back…" he frowned. "I never get it."

Seto frowned at this. He never had a family, but being abandoned like this was sad. "Sorry to hear."

"It's ok…" she muttered sadly, but then she quickly put on a bright smile. "Because Shuuya is with me, I'm not scared and lonely anymore."

"Well, there's Kousuke now! Whenever I can't come out to play with you, he can do that for me!" Kano pipped up. But when Kido quickly shook her head and latched herself arms around Kano, the boys all stared at her.

"Thank you, but…no one else can find me like you can…" she whispered shyly. Kano blushed a bit at her words, looking away in embarrassment but Seto noticed.

"How did you find her, Your Highness?" he asked. "You said you heard her, but…" he paused for a second, "I didn't hear anything…"

At that, Kano turned back to him, confused. "Really? It's so easy to find her though! All you have to do is listen to her crying and ta-da! There she is!"

"I-I don't cry that loudly!" Kido fumed at him, but Seto agreed.

"She's right, I really didn't hear her at all…but Your Highness, you just dashed away into the distance once you predicted where she was!"

Kano laughed at the two. "No, really! I heard Tsubomi's crying! That's how I always found her!" he turned back to the girl. "I don't like it when you cry, but that way I can always find you. I'm sorry, but if you're worried on me not finding you, I'll sneak out more often, ok?"

Eyes wide, Kido stared at him with Kousuke, who had his bottom jaw fall open. "Your Highness, you can't do that!" he panicked. "You'll get into so much trouble if Her Majesty finds out you snuck out and not attend to your studies and duties as the prince!"

"He's right, Shuuya!" Tsubomi shook her head, fear clearly in her eyes. "I don't want you to get into trouble!"

But all the young prince did was laugh. "You're not changing my mind!" he announced. "I'm going to sneak out to find Tsubomi as many times as I want."

Kousuke groaned and his head fell on top of his knees. There was no way he could change his friend's mind now. Looking through his bangs, he watched the two continued to talk. Kido was still insisting on Kano to not sneak out for her, but the blond just brushed it of as fine.

"You two must really like each other." There was a pause before Seto realized what he just said. All three children stared at each other, slowly soaking the simple words in, before they became flustered and denied what was said.

"I-I didn't mean to!"

"It's not like that!"

"What are you saying!?"

The rest of the day became more awkward between the three, more so for Kano and Kido. The two would always avert their eyes whenever they made eye contact. And Seto was awkward between them, seeing how they actually like each other, but didn't want to admit it.

Sighing, he wondered how they were going to sort this out.

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The next day, it turned out that Kido was actually a princess of another kingdom who was placed in the woods in order for Kano to meet and eventually fall in love with. Their parents were strategic when it came to their children's habits and movements, wanting it to look natural rather than making it look forced. However, on the day the three children played with each other, that night Kido's house was set on fire, with only the corpses of her parents left behind. What's more the villagers who witness to this tragic event described the murderer as 'a black serpent with bright yellow eyes'. This description was heard again when it turned out the Kingdom Kido was from was turned to a waste land by that very same serpent. No one in the royal family survived. And Kido was just vanished.

Even though no one found the young princess' body, Kano was hysteric and fought against his mother's guards that withheld him from leaving the palace ever again. They did not want the same tragedy to befall on them, and Kano was locked within his home, away from harm. But he never believed it. He didn't believe Kido was dead, and she was crying somewhere, waiting to be found. But no matter how many times he tried, he could never leave without any of the guards to escort him to and from special occasions.

Ten years from then, Kano grew up and learnt to hide his emotions behind a mask. He trained hard in kendo with Seto, who knew how important Kido was to him and wanted to help. He was a fine prince, with many admirers that was willing to marry him now that he was of age. But no matter what, he rejected them.

He wanted, and was going to find, Kido no matter what.

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***Darumasan ga Koronda is a game where you need at least three players and one of them is it. Basically it's Living Statues or Red Light Green Light.**


End file.
